27th July 2008

Rodney takes over as Tigers closer

posted in 2008 season |

Hallelujah! Our prayers have been answered!

Jason Beck of MLB.com reports the Tigers made Fernando Rodney the new closer, “for the time being.” Jim Leyland made the announcement on the radio program and the TV guys don’t know, Beck reported.

The move is somewhat positve, as Jones has been rather shakey as the position. On the other hand, at one point, the Tigers were said to be shopping Rodney around (I’m sure they’ve since ceased that project). Of course any fan with any modicum of memory will recall a blown game or two or three from Rodney as well, so it’s important to remember, it’s not like you’re trading your old Chevy pickup for a Mercedes here. The interesting question is, what is Jones’ role now? Given you can’t trust him in close games, just making him the setup man does not exactly give me confidence in the switch.

(3:17 p.m. update) In an unrelated note, Joel Zumaya just left the game with an unknown injury. The Tigers have the WORST luck.

(1 a.m. update) Apparently the move was actually made on Saturday, Leyland said during his FSN postgame. Later, we learned Todd Jones was really sad and emotional over the demotion. Via Bilfer, here’s the sound at the DetNews. When hearing that, you have to feel bad for the guy. On a human level anyway, though he’s certainly far from perfect with some of his views. On the professional level, he’s aging, hasn’t had “it” and was hurting the team. So I’m certainly glad he’s not the closer anymore. By his emotions, he seemed to hint that he won’t be the closer again in what may be the final year of his career. He seemed to think it was the end.

(But given Rodney’s need for nearly 50 pitches and Zumaya’s tender arm, who knows when Jones will pop up in the ninth again. We could end up seeing Freddy Dolsi in the eighth Monday and Jones in the ninth.

Long term, I think the Tigers have to try to trade Jones because if he can’t close, he doesn’t have a lot of value to the Tigers. I don’t know if there will be any trading partners, though. I wouldn’t want to trade for him, that’s for sure, so why should any other team? But I don’t see them DFA’ing him.

Hopefully Zumaya’s arm feels OK soon. I think Zumaya, Dolsi and Rodney will be servicable (if healthy) for the rest of the year. Next year, one of the three will end up a pretty decent closer. Answering a question from a friend, I don’t think it’s worth while (or cost) to chase a closer like Frankie Rodriguez in the offseason.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 at 1:43 pm and is filed under 2008 season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

There are currently 3 responses to “Rodney takes over as Tigers closer”

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  1. 1 On July 27th, 2008, tiger337 said:

    Even when he’s going well, Jones is useless in any role but closer so I don’t see how he can have any role other than mop up. The best move would be to release him but I don’t see that happening. I’m not really confident in Rodney either but I think he’s the best choice among a poor lot right now.

  2. 2 On July 27th, 2008, Kurt said:

    I don’t see Jones really having a role, either. Mopup?

  3. 3 On July 27th, 2008, Phil said:

    Hell yes, release him! If we get lucky we might get to hit against him if somebody picks him up!!!

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